It's easy to compare prices on cameras, vacations, and homes. But in
the United States, patients fly blind when paying for health care.
People typically don't find out how much any given medical procedure
costs until well after they receive treatment, be it a blood draw or major surgery.

This lack of transparency has contributed to huge disparities in the cost of procedures. According to Castlight Health,
a startup based in San Francisco, a colonoscopy costs anywhere from
$563 to $3,967 within a single zip code. EKGs can range from $27 to
$143, while the price for a set of three spinal x-rays varies from as
little as $38 to as high as $162.

When someone else is picking up the tab, mystery pricing is not much
of a problem. But these days, even the 59.5 million Americans who get
health benefits through large self-insured employers are increasingly
expected to pay a percentage of the costs for their medical care.

Castlight aims to do as its name suggests: cast light on the actual
costs of medical care, so that people can make informed decisions. The
company, founded in 2008 by entrepreneurs Giovanni Colella and Todd
Park, now chief innovation officer for the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, offers computer-based tools that let people comparison
shop for health care in much the same way they would for airline tickets
on Travelocity or for cars on Cars.com.

Travelocity for medicine: Castlight's data-driven tool sheds light on the costs of medical care,
information that can be difficult for consumers to find on their own.